The present invention relates generally to oxygen and fuel welding and cutting equipment and in particular to a cart to safely hold and protect such welding equipment.
Oxyacetylene gas welding and cutting sets are found in nearly every industrial shop in the world. A welding set usually consists of one 210-pound pressurized cylinder filled with 275 cubic feet of toxic acetylene gas and one 175-pound pressurized cylinder filled with 250 cubic feet of industrial oxygen at 2,500 psi standing side-by-side in a two wheeled tip-back style cart. On top of these cylinders are the exposed valves and regulators. The welding set includes twin rubber hoses connected to a mixing valve and torch tips.
Mishaps involving oxyacetylene gas-welding and cutting sets are usually catastrophic to anyone in the area often involving loss of property and life. If toppled over, a 175-pound pressurized oxygen cylinder with a broken regulator and/or valve can jet away at more than 30 miles an hour smashing through block walls and fly through the air reaching distances of more than a half-mile. It can spin, ricochet and smash through anything in its path. In addition to these hazards, the tip back style cylinder carts are dangerous because they are awkward and heavy to move around. The industry norm is to loosely hold these cylinders in the tip cart using a wrap-around chain. The cylinders can easily tip over and/or fall out of the cart in this configuration possibly causing harm to the person trying to move them. Lastly, excessive hose on the ground can be cut or damaged by falling objects and/or molten metal, can catch fire and burn up.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,949 disclosed a partial solution to the inherent safety problems associated with welding sets by placing the pressure and flow rate regulator dials in a ventilated box separate from the pressurized cylinders. However, the cylinder valves were still exposed and the tip-style cart was still employed. It would be advantageous to have a welding cart that could not be tipped over, physically separated the cylinders and protected the cylinder valves, and that could be locked into position.